Paul Orta (Vocal and Harmonica) was born in Port Arthur, Texas
hometown of Janis Joplin,
Guitar Junior and other prominent musicians.
Paul was first influenced by the blues at the age of eight, when he saw
Louis Armstrong on a movie. After nine years of playing with school band,
Paul quit because the band never played Jazz or Blues. Within a half of
a year Paul picked up the harmonica, and in three months he was in his
first professional band. The name of the group was the Bayou Boogie
Band, and they played and toured the Golden Triangle of Southeast Texas
Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange, and Louisiana for three years.

In
1979, Paul moved to Austin, Texas and he won the Kerrville Folk Festival
harmonica contest in 1980. Later he formed the The Backdoormen with Port
Arthur native Bill Arthur Jones, and with the help of bass player Eddie
Stout they evolved into the Kingpins. Afterwards Paul entered the
Antones University Of the Blues: playing with Blues greats
Matt Guitar
Murphy, Pinetop Perkins, Eddie Taylor, Sunnyland
Slim, Wayne Benett,
Lockwood.htm">Robert Lockwood Jr,
Luther Tucker,
Willie Big Eyes Smith, Ted Harvey and
many others, even being invited by Jimmy Rogers to play gigs and
Snooky
Pryor to join him on stage everytime he was at Antones. And every
wednesday night for three months Paul played with
Howlin Wolf s guitar
player Hubert Sumlin.

Paul also toured and recorded with Texas Guitar Tornado U.P. Wilson
(U.S.A. and Europe) for over two years. Paul has also recorded over a
dozen albums and also can be heard on over three dozen different
compilations and various artists, albums in North & South America,
Europe, Japan and Australia. In addition he has performed with second
generation bluesman like Kim Wilson, Derek O'Brian, and has recorded
with Tommy Shannon & Chris Layton (Stevie Ray Vaughn
rhythm section) with
Brazilian Blues/Rock guitar player Nuno Mindelis, even performing
several festvals in front of thousand fans. Past members have included (Johnny Winter), Keith Ferguson (Fabulous
Thunderbirds), Mike Kindred (Stevie Ray Vaughn), Wesley Starr (Delbert McClinton, Willie Nelson), Freddie Walden (Anson
Funderburgh), Jimmy
Carl Black (Frank Zappa).

Paul was nominated Texas Harmonica Tornado; by Buddy Magazine in
1987, played at the San Francisco Battle of the Harmonicas and the Texas
Harmonica Rumble. Hohner Harmonicas endorsed him in 1990, and in 1994,
he helped Kendrick Amplifiers design a amplifier for harmonica called
the Texas Crude. Paul also has designed his own special slide harp which
allows one to play various positions on one harmonica.

Lately Paul has been working as a producer and has produced for
Dialtone records Ervin Charles Greyhound Blues, Richard Earl for a
Christmas compilation (also on Dialtone) and Wild Bill Pitre. He also
has two new records of his own, one with Lazy Lester, on his own label
BLUES INTERNATIONAL, to be distributed in Europe. Paul who lives in
Paris when not in Austin or Port Arthur, has been an active promoter of
Blues in the School program in Port Arthur. --
www.cgmusicpartners.com